APOL.

112 Pictures, when introduced, of histories, not of individuals.

NOTES is paid, be seen on the walls." A little earlier than Paullinus, Epiphanius ON in Palestine, in a Church, which he had entered to pray, with John, Bishop of Jerusalem, destroyed a hanging representing " Christ or some saint;"" abhorring, that contrary to the authority of the Scriptures, the image of a man should be suspended in the Church of Christ." He gave it for a winding sheet for some poor, himself replacing the hanging by one from Cyprus; the only objection made to the action was the loss of the hanging. (Ep. ad Joann. Ep. Hieros. translated by S. Jerome, Ep. 51.) Contemporary with Paullinus, S. Augustine denies that Christians had any images in their Churches, (in Ps. 113. §. 6. see below, p. 116.)

Coming then to later times, we find the first sacred use in Churches, not of statues but of pictures, and those not of Martyrs, but of Martyrdoms". They are not memorials of individuals, but painted histories of sufferings for Christ's sake, to animate Christians; such as the martyrdom of S. Cassianus, (Prudentius, Perist. ix. 5 sqq. where he says expressly Historiam pictura refert, v. 19.) of S. Hippolytus, (ib. xi. 126,) of S. Felix, (Paullinus Poem. 25. v. 20 sqq.) Barlaam the Martyr, (S. Basil, S. in Barlaam v. fin. if indeed there be any reference of actual painting at all. S. Basil seems rather to be speaking of the hymns of others, who could paint more vividly what he had depicted faintly.) S. Theodorus, (Greg. Nyss. Orat. in Theod. t. iii. p. 579.) S. Euphemia (Asterius ep. 7. Syn. Act. 4, p. 617. quoted by Petav. 1. c.) This is the more illustrated by the account of other pictures in Churches; the most common was Abraham sacrificing Isaac, (again a history.) Greg. Nyss. Orat. 44. de Fil. et Sp. Div. t. iii. p. 476, [he is quoted as proving the existence of images of the Passion of Christ, whereas he only says he had seen sizóva Teũ álovs, either a picture of the sufferings of Isaac, or if it relates to the Passion, then it means that offering of Isaac, as a type of the Passion; in neither case, any direct representation of the Passion.] Aug. c. Faust. xxii. 73. ("tot locis pictum.") Or again, the histories of Job, Tobit, Judith, Esther, mentioned by Paullinus, 1. c. together with those of the Martyrdoms, and (if genuine) recommended by Nilus, a disciple of S. Chrysostom, 7 Syn. Act. 4. p. 628. ap. Petav. 1. c. This difference is important. 1. As shewing the object to be not to set forth the individual, but to instruct by the history. 2. The risk of idolatry is towards the individual saints; a history could not be the object of worship.

a Bellarmine (1. c.) argues the paragraph to be supposititious, but it is in all MSS.

b S. Gregory of Nazianzum Ep. 49. ad Olymp. is manifestly speaking of statues, wherewith the cities, not Churches, were adorned. He contrasts the destruction of the statues with the destruction of the whole city, "for if the statues shall be cast down, (nary xenora,) this is not so grievous though it is otherwise grievous-but if with them

an ancient city shall be cast down." (σunarsvsxnora.) They were then the statues on the buildings of the city, which would be overthrown with it. Besides since the Greeks to this day do not set up statues, how much less then! Bellarmine, 1. c. alleges the passage; Petav. de Inc. 15. 14. 3. gives it up.

C

It is remarkable, on the same ground, that even where pictures were used, statues were avoided, as the Greek Church continues to do, though forgetting

Mistaken evidence-contrast of genuine and spurious works. 113

3. The martyrdoms were depicted in no other way, than histories of the O. T. which were never the objects of outward reverence. 4. Pictures also of the living, as well as of the departed, were placed in the Churches, as that of Paullinus himself, with S. Martin, (Epist. 32. ad Severum,) yet since the pictures of the living were not placed to have any sort of worship paid them, so neither those of the departed.

Though it makes no difference in principle, whether there be more or fewer of such instances, it is worth noticing, how eagerly proof has been grasped at, even where there is none, so that we may be the more satisfied that no real proof has been neglected. Thus S. Augustine, (quoted by Petav. 1. c. §. 6.) Serm. 2. de S. Steph. is not referring to a picture of S. Stephen, but to his own discourse, in which he tells his hearers, that they had seen, i. e. had set before their eyes, his martyrdom. S. Chrysostom in Encom. Melet, is speaking of engravings on rings, cups, &c. not of Churches; Theodoret, in vit. Symeon, mentions only a report that in Italy the picture of that saint was set over workshops as a safeguard. This fact (strangely enough) is seriously alleged by Bellarm. 1. c. ii. 9.

Other mistakes have been more serious, as when Eusebius, de vit. Const. iii. 40, is quoted in proof that images of Christ were set up in Churches, whereas he only says, "that the symbol of the Saving Passion [the Cross] was set up, formed of precious stones, (iurexñxla, rò roũ owengiou æátous cúμßoλov.) Or iii. 3, that there were a number of gold and silver images in Constantine's Churches, (Bellarm. 1. c. ii. 9.) while he only mentions treasures [sacred utensils] (roïs ię ágyúgov na¡ xgvooũ nuunλins): or Paullinus of the use of the crucifix, where he is distinctly speaking of the cross only,the ancient symbol of the cross with the crown of thorns over, (coronatam, vers. in Ep. 32. [ol. 12.] ad Sev. §. 12. crucibus minio superpictis, §. 14.

It is remarkable also to contrast the distinct statements of later works, now acknowledged to be spurious, with the absence of such statements in the genuine works, Thus in the spurious Ep. to Julian attributed, in the Dentero-Nicene Council, to S. Basil, [Ep. 360,]“whence I honour also and reverence b exceedingly the likenesses of their images [the Blessed Virgin's, Apostles, Prophets, and Martyrs,] these having been delivered down from the holy Apostles, and not forbidden, but painted in all our Churches." In the de Visit. Infirm. ii. 3, in S, Augustine's works, is an account of a crucifix; the treatise is spurious, and its author wholly unknown. In the spurious Epistle of S. Ambrose, (de Invent. Gerv. et Protas,) (quoted by Damasc. p. 755, and Petav. 1. c.) he is made to speak of a vision of S. Paul, whom he recognized by the likeness to a picture of the Apostle

APOL.

114 Irrelevance of illustrations urged in defence of image-worship;

NOTES which he had by him; in the genuine Epistle, (Ep, xxii. ad Sororem,) he ON speaks of a certain presaging glow. In the celebrated passage alleged from S. Gregory, (Ep. ix. 52.) mention is made of a picture of Christ, and of reverence paid to it, and the principle is laid down, "we prostrate not ourselves before it, as before the Divinity, but we worship Him Who is represented in the picture." The passage is certainly spurious, for the letter had already been brought to a close, and, according to the admission of the Benedictine Editor, it is absent from all MSS. The modern Romanist plea for image worship is strikingly at variance with S. Gregory's sentiments in his genuine works, as in his Epp. to Serenus, Bp. of Marseilles, Epp. ix. 105. xi. 13. He says he had heard that "his brother Serenus, seeing certain worshippers of images, had broken those same images in the Church, and cast them out;-and I praise this, that you were zealous, that nothing made with hands should be worshipped." He then draws the distinction between the use of pictures as means of instructing the unlettered, and the abuse of worshipping them; advises that they be retained to the former end, and care be taken "that the people sin not in worshipping a picture." Gussanville admits candidly that this is somewhat harshly (duriuscule) spoken; another commentator explains it away by reference to the distinction of absolute and relative worship of the images of the saints, (Thom. 2. 2. qu. 94, art. 2. ad 1mum). Yet the same person would never have used both sorts of language.

On such authorities however, and the then received practice, was the Deutero-Nicene Council determined, in which unhappily the two distinct questions of the lawfulness of pictures in Churches, (which we fully admit,) and the outward reverence to them, were blended together.

Still weaker, if possible, is the evidence of outward reverence; on the cross, see above, p. 37. n. c. but besides this, no one genuine document is quoted in behalf of any sort of outward reverence; the quotations from the genuine works of the Fathers on the head of worship in the Deutero-Nicene Council, relate only to the principle of the honour paid to the type being referred to the prototype, where they are not speaking of images made with hands. Thus S. Ambrose in Ps. 118. Serm. x. §. 25. "God is honoured in good men, His image, as the emperor in his statue; the Gentiles worship wood as the image of God; the image of the invisible God is in that which is unseen," [i. e. the spirits of good men]. In like way S. Augustine de Doctr. Christ. iii. 9. “he who reverences any sign [signum] divinely instituted, venerates not what is seen and transitory, but that whereto they are all referred;" add S. Athanas. 1. iii. c. Ariann. c. 5. where to illustrate how "the Divinity of the Father is seen in the Son," [the Image of the invisible God] he uses the likeness of an Emperor being seen in the image, so that he who sees the image, in it sees the Emperor. "So then he who worships the image, in it worships the king also; for the image is his form and likeness. Since then the Son is the Image of the Father, we must needs understand that the Divinity and Property of the Father is the Being of the Son. And this is the meaning of Who being in the Form of God,' and, the Father is in Me.' In like way, S. Basil, de Sp. S. c. 18.

not so used by Fathers; would prove worshipnot merely relative. 115 answers the question, "If the Father be God and the Son God, how are there not two Gods?" "because the image of the king is also called the king, for the power is not severed, nor the glory divided. For as the rule and power which controlleth us is one, so is our glorifying one, and not many. Wherefore the honour to the image passeth to the prototype. What then in the one case the image is by imitation, the Son is in the other by Nature." add Hom. 14. c. Sabell. §. 4. Now it is observable that the very object of these illustrations implies that the reverence is not merely relative, but is paid to the image in itself, only not distinct; as the reverence paid to the Son is not simply relative to the Father. The inversion then of these comparisons proves nothing, unless it could be shewn that as the Son is worshipped in Himself, although with the Father as being One with the Father, so the image made with hands may be worshipped in itself. This also the language of S. Athanasius implies; he says, "worships the king also," the worship then of the image is again nothing merely relative; for had it been so, it had been an unfit illustration. Lastly, to justify the application of these illustrations, used in the Ancient Church, to imageworship, it ought to have been shewn that the Fathers so applied them; for they sanction only the application which they themselves make. But, so applied to a subject wholly foreign to what they had in view, these illustrations would become the very excuses of the Heathen, against which the early Christians argued, and against which they could not have argued, as they did, had they, with the modern Romanists, had an imageworship which they excused in the same way. The heathen excuse in Lactantius, (ii. 2. see also Athenag. §. 18.) "they say, we do not fear them, (the images,) but those (the gods) after whose likeness they are formed and in whose names they are consecrated," is exactly the same as the distinction of the Pseudo-Gregory (see above), or S. Thomas 1. c. " the images of saints may not be worshipped with an absolute though but inferior adoration, but with a relative only may they and ought they to be worshipped." In like way, it is inconceivable that S. Augustine should argue in the way he does (in Ps. 113.) against the images of the heathen, had they been used in Christian worship. He could not have thus nakedly censured arguments so like what Romanists now use. "Holy Scripture guards in other places, that no one, when images were mocked, should say, I worship not this visible thing, but the Deity which invisibly dwelleth there," [S. 2. §. 3.] if the Heathen should have retorted, that so "Christians worshipped not that visible thing, but the Deity, God and man, thereby represented:" or again, (§. 4.)" They deem themselves of a purer religion who say, 'I worship neither image nor dæmon; but I gaze on the bodily image of that which I ought to worship."" Again, both here (§. 5.) and Ep. 102. ad Deogratias, (qu. 3. §. 18.) he speaks of thee special danger of images, when the mind in prayer was directed towards them, "Who worships or prays, looking upon an image, and does not become so affected as to think that he is heard by it, as to hope that what he longs for will be granted him by it?-Against this feeling, whereby human and carnal infirmity may easily be ensnared, the Scripture of God utters things well

ON APOL.

116 Intermediate state held by the Fathers as distinct from Heaven ;

NOTES known, whereby it reminds and rouses as it were the minds of men, slumbering in the accustomed things of the body; The images of the heathen,' it says,' are silver and gold.'" He then (§. 6.) meets the objection, that the Christians too had vessels of silver and gold, the works of men's hands, for the service of the Sacraments. "But," he asks, "have they mouths, and speak not? have they eyes, and see not? do we pray to them, in that through them, we pray to God? This is the chief cause of that frantic ungodliness, that a form, like one living, has more power over the feelings of the unhappy beings, causing itself to be worshipped, than the plain fact that it is not living, so that it ought to be despised by the living. For images are of more avail to bow down the unhappy mind (in that they have mouth, have eyes, have ears, have nostrils, have hands, have feet,) than it hath to correct it that they speak not, see not, hear not, smell not, touch not, walk not." It seems impossible that S. Augustine could so have written, had the Church in his day permitted the use of images, whereon Christians might gaze while they prayed.

To sum up the historical statement; 1. in the three first centuries it is positively stated that the Christians had no images. 2. Private individuals had pictures, but it was discouraged. (Aug.) 3. The Cross, not the Crucifix, was used; the first mention of the Cross in a Church is in the time of Constantine. 4. The first mention of pictures in Churches (except to forbid them) is at the end of the fourth century; and these, historical pictures from the O. T. or of martyrdoms, not of individuals. 5. No account of any picture of our Lord being publicly used occurs in the six first centuries, (the first is in Leontius Neap. 1. v. Apol. pro Christian. A.D. 600.) 6. Outward reverence to pictures is condemned. (Greg.)

Note C. on c. xlvii. p. 98.

The ancient Fathers uniformly speak of the intermediate state under the Scriptural name of "Paradise," (Tert. de Paradiso, in Lib. de Anima, c. 55. Orig. de Princ. 1. ii. v. fin. Chrys. Hom. i. and ii. de Cruc. et Latron. §. 2. Prudent. pro Exeq. def. Cathem. x. 151.) or "Abraham's bosom," (Tert. adv. Marc. iii. 24. iv. 34, de Anima, c. 7. 55.) [in the "refreshment of awaiting the Resurrection," de An. c. 55. distinguishing it from Paradise, or the dwelling beneath the Altar, as open to Martyrs (de Res. Carn. c. 43.) only, and the Patriarchs, (de An. c. 55. Scorp. c. 12.)] Auct. Carm. de Judic. Dom. ap. Tert. Orig. de Princ. 1. iv. 23. Quæstt. et Resp. ap. Just. M. q. 75. 76. Greg. Naz. Orat. in S. Cæsar. Greg. Nyss. Orat. 2. in 40. Mart. fin. t. i. p. 513. (even of Martyrs) Chrys. Hom. 7. in Heb. iv. Hom. ii. de Lazaro, t. i. p. 726. ed. Ben.; Hom. 53. in Matt.; Hom. 40. in Gen.; Pseudo-Dionys. Eccl. Hier. vii. 4. Athanas. Expos. Fid. §. 1. Auct. Quæstt. ad Antioch. q. 19. Hil. in Ps. 2. fin. and Ps. 120. fin. Ambrosiast. in Phil. 1. Prudent. 1. c. Aug. in

Most of these passages are collected by Sixt. Senens. Biblioth. S. 1. vi. Adn. 264. and 345. Huet Origenian. 1. ii. qu.

xi. §. 15. Bellarm. de Sanct. Beat. i. 4. Pearson Expos. of Creed, Art. v.